The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1887-06-09

-NL4 vi Wy u WdttI-Dut"
-Fdnsie Windsor, in Life.
A B
The Romantic Manner In Which it
Was Solved.
"a woman's education is a mistake
from beginning to end" said Roxy
Stephens, in a sudden outburst of de-
spair. "Yes, it is. Here have. I been
going to school all my life, and I don't
know any thing. There never could
have been," Roxy deliberately added,
.seven in the Dark Ages, such an ig-
noramus as an. Idon't even know
how to feed the chickens properly"
as a downy colony of little ..Domini-
ques'' scattered this way and that be-
fore the mass of sealded meal which
Roxy had flung too abruptly into their
midst, while the mother hen, sounding
a trumpet note of shrin alarm, scuttled
back against the picket-fence, with
tapping wings and feathers all a-bris-
tie.
Up to a certain degree there was
truth in Roxy's lamentation. She had
been seventeen years old when she
came to live with her aunt Sally
Stephens on the Redbrook Farm. She
was a bright-haired, fresh-complex-
toned girl with shady blue eyes, en-
phasized by perfectly arched brows a
thought heavier than falls to the usual
lot of womankind. They had al
ways been a secret grievance to her,
these black, leech-like curves; but, had
Dehe only known it, the dark, strongly
penciled brows were what gave charac-
ter to her whole face, and redeemed it
from the insipidity of mere pink and
white prettiness. In a certain fashion
her mind correspondent to her eye
brows. There was a quaint vein of
originality pervading it. Her nature
was strongly outlined, too. and in the
fullness of youth and vitality she had
once believed that she was born to
conquer fate.
Roxanna Stephens was a city-bred
girl, the daughter of Miss Sally's old
est brother. who had died unexpected
~, leaving a motherless girl totally un-
provided for. Thus do people give
mortgages to fate, and dying, leave
others to foreclose on them. There is
undoubtedly certain degree of injus-
tice in it; but who shall venture to carp
against the Lords will? Miss Sally
herself, a complaining little woman,
with face full of fine wrinkles, like
China Grape, and blue eyes hidden be-
hind misty spectacles, accepted the
trust, as she had accepted all the other
inconyeniencies of her life, simply and
without protest.. She had never had
any strong emotions one way or the
other. If she had any active pleasure,
it was in gathering the humble. herbs
aud simples of her native fields and
drying them in preparation for the
aches and pains that beset her poor
humanity. "It's always well to be
prepared" said she. Il don't hold
with the homepathies, nor yet I hain't
no faith in calomel and mercury.
There amt nothin' like roots and
herbs, and every neighbor within ten
miles around comes to me for 'em
when they've sickness in the house"
And to this little old brown woman
in a little old brown farmhouse came
Roxanna, the young princess who had
set forth to conquer the world.
..Tm desput glad you've come. Rox-
anner,' said Miss Stephens, shifting at
a bunch of wilted pennyroyal. 81
amt able to keep on dom as I hev
been dom. Somehow it's borne in
upon me that Providence has sent you.
I've worked powerful hard all my life,
and now I'll jest rest a spell, and let
You keep house for me. l hain't no
doubt at all but what we'll get along
together fi~rst-rate, you and me-"
Roxy looked with solemn eyes at
her aunt Evidently the old lady had
faith rs a grain of mustard-seed, and
there was something contagious in her
example.
ut must be very easy to keep
house." said Roxy, fresh from the
classroom and recitation-hall. So the
household helm was delivered into her
hands, and then-not till then-she
realized the fact of her exceeding igno-
Not for worlds, however, would she
have confessed her inability to rule the
domestic MENACE. Aunt Sally had a
profound contempt for ''book-larnin',"
and did not hesitate to assert roundly
that .sef brother Simon had took her
advice he would hev brung up Roxan-
ner in quite a different way" and the
girl had a certain silent pride in vindi-
eating her fathers judgment. So, by
the help of a dog's-eared cookery book
which she found in the garnet, she
learned some of the simpler secrets OF
the cuisine, and her own neat nature
taught her the mysteries of sweeping
and scrubbing; while old Kinda, a jet
black negress, with grizzled wool and
a soft appealing voice like a flute, who
peryaded the neighborhood, came twice
in the month to wash and iron for the
little household.
.'Jes what ole Hinda's good for
said she; s.dat, an muffin else. Missy
can do mos anything; but dar amt NJ
sense in Missy stan'in' at de wash-tub
Leave dat are to ole Kinda"
And Roxy's spirits rose with her goot
luck.
.Tm getting to be a house-keeper,'
said she, cheerily, to herself. "Thos'
fried fish this morning tasted quit
good, and the wild plums that 1 pre-
served yesterday are certainly going t.
be a success"
But If it is always darkest befor
daylight, it Is also sometimes brightes
before an unexpected thundcr.cloud
And one day cid Hinda bsthsusht hsG